What number is displayed in the diagram to the left? That’s right, it’s 729! Otherwise written as 9 x 9 x 3 x 3, which is the pattern you can see here.

This is a factorisation diagram, and it’s a pretty simple way to work out what the number is. Take it one step further, and you can animate it, as they did over at Data Pointed. This creates a beautiful montage of images from which you can easily tell what number is being shown. It’s also pretty mesmerising just to watch it roll up through the numbers, changing shape and showing primes.